


Just Like Captain America

by remreader



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, MIT Era, Rhodey is Tony's Hero, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25956304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remreader/pseuds/remreader
Summary: When Tony returns to school from a trip home with a concealed injury, Rhodey is there to save the day.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark
Comments: 20
Kudos: 123
Collections: Iron Husbands Bingo, Ironhusbands Bingo 2020, Tony Stark Flash Bingo





	1. Rhodey accidentally discovers Tony's injury.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fill for Iron Husbands Bingo, and it gets me a full board for the August TSB Flash Bingo!
> 
> Title: Just Like Captain America  
> Collaborator Name: newnewyorker93  
> Squares:  
> • Tony Stark Flash Bingo: 019 - roommates/neighbors  
> • Iron Husbands Bingo (card 2011): N5 - damaged goods (Chapter 1), I3 - fluff/angst (Chapter 2)  
> Main Pairing: Tony Stark & James Rhodes  
> Rating: Gen  
> Major Tags: Fluff & Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, MIT Era  
> Summary: When Tony returns to school from a trip home with a concealed injury, Rhodey is there to save the day.  
> Word Count: 2099

James Rhodes frowned and threw his textbook down on the bed next to him. He’d been _trying_ to study for his astrodynamics final but the deafening silence uncharacteristic of any room that had Tony Stark in it was driving him crazy. Sure, his roommate was always a bit down after spending time at home (more specifically, after spending time dealing with his father), preferring to throw himself into his homework (or, Rhodey suspected, having gotten the occasional peek at Tony’s notebook, _much_ more than just homework) rather than revert to his default state of talking Rhodey’s ear off like an overeager puppy, but this was too much. Tony had been back in their shared dorm room for hours now - Rhodey had found him already hunched over in his desk chair scribbling out equations, his still-packed suitcase lying discarded on the floor, when he returned from his morning run - and had barely said three sentences in all that time, refusing to engage with any of Rhodey’s attempts at conversation. Rhodey kept trying anyway.

"Hey Tony, want to grab some lunch?" No answer. "Earth to Anthony Stark! C'mon, let's go for a walk, get some fresh air or something." Still nothing. “Like I’m not even here,” Rhodey muttered under his breath. Well, there was nothing else for it. Whenever Tony got like this - too laser-focused on his work to pay attention to anything, including his own need for food, water, and the world outside their dorm room - more direct action was needed. Rhodey hopped off his bed and strode across the room, reaching out as he passed Tony to grab his left hand and pull him towards the door.

And Tony _screamed_.

"What the hell? If you don't want to go just say so, Tony, you don't have to act like a feral-" Rhodey stopped talking abruptly, his mind catching up with the scene in front of him. Tony had gone even paler than usual and was biting back tears as he clutched the hand Rhodey had grabbed to his chest, clearly in pain. Rhodey looked at his own hand, completely nonplussed. He hadn’t pulled _that_ hard. And theatrical as he could sometimes be, Tony definitely wasn’t faking the anguished expression on his face or the little hitching breaths he was taking as he tried to calm down again. Rhodey tracked back, putting the pieces together, trying to remember...had he seen Tony use his left hand at all since getting back? And that hoodie Tony was wearing even though it was pretty warm in their room...perfect for hiding bruises - or worse. Probably worse - Rhodey knew Tony had a surprisingly high pain tolerance, having watched him do all kinds of absentmindedly reckless shit in the lab without even flinching, so for him to scream like that at a casual touch… “ _Shit_.” Then, gentler, “Show me?”

Tony dropped his clutched hand like it was on fire, trying and completely failing to maintain a neutral expression in response to the resulting additional jolt of pain. “Nothing to show.”

Rhodey responded with a look that clearly said _are you kidding me right now?_ “Is that why you shrieked?”

“You startled me, that's all.” 

“Uh-huh.”

Realizing that Rhodey wasn’t going to let the issue drop, Tony reluctantly pulled his left sleeve back, wincing at the light brush of fabric as the cuff of the sweatshirt passed over his wrist. Sure enough, it was painfully swollen - sprained, possibly broken. And amongst the mess of mottled deep blues and purples, Rhodey could make out a smudge that looked suspiciously like a thumbprint, as if someone had gripped Tony’s wrist, hard.

" _Shit_ , Tones. Did he do that to you?" Who _he_ was went unspoken but they both knew who Rhodey meant - Howard Stark. They'd never actually _talked_ about it or anything, but from what Rhodey had seen of Tony’s strained-would-be-a-polite-word-for-it interactions with his father it was unfortunately not much of a leap to imagine the elder Stark going too far during an argument and doing something like this.

Tony nodded once, twice and then, as if realizing what he'd just confirmed, his eyes widened and he quickly shook his head in a silent, insistent 'no'. "I mean n-no, not exactly...it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Just an accident."

"An accident," Rhodey echoed skeptically.

"I don't want to talk about it, ok? I want to finish this stupid calculus- _fuck!_ ” Tony swore as the tip of his pencil snapped - he’d pressed it too hard against the paper, overdoing his already unconvincing pantomime of normalcy. He threw it down onto the desk; it promptly rolled off and clattered to the floor.

 _No, not ok_ , Rhodey thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. Maybe it was an accident and maybe it wasn’t - and Rhodey definitely had his own suspicions about _that_ \- but the bottom line was that Tony’s wrist needed professional looking at, and Rhodey knew from experience that too much prying would only make Tony shut down even further.

“Look, it’s no big deal,” Tony insisted. “It’s just bruised, it’ll heal on its own.”

“Yeah? Go on then,” Rhodey challenged him, “wiggle your fingers.” Tony looked Rhodey dead in the eye and wiggled the fingers on his right hand. Despite the seriousness of the situation Rhodey had to bite back a grin; Tony really could be a little shit when he put his mind to it. “Thought so. Come on, we’re going.”

“Going where?”

“I'm taking you to the hospital to get that wrist looked at, where do you think?” When Tony didn’t make any move to get up Rhodey decided to try a different tack. “You know,” he pointed out, “it’s gonna be really hard for us to finish Dum-E if you’ve only got one working hand…”

Tony twitched a bit at that and Rhodey knew he was seriously weighing this new variable. Tony hated going very long between bouts of getting his hands dirty with the physical work of building. The kid may have been a genius at, well at pretty much everything he put any effort into, and even some things he _didn’t_ , but the workshop was where his true passion lay. Tony was still frowning when he looked back up at Rhodey but he seemed to accept the logic of the situation because he nodded. “Ok. But I’m going to need, um,” Tony cleared his throat, still uncomfortable with asking for help. “My shoes,” he continued awkwardly, “I don’t think I can lace them up like this…”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Rhodey said softly. “I’ve got you.”


	2. Rhodey takes Tony to the hospital, and Tony gets a bit loopy on pain meds.

Tony was quiet the whole drive to the hospital. As soon as they arrived, though, it was like a switch had been flipped and his whole demeanor changed in an instant. He flirted with the intake nurse and effortlessly charmed the x-ray technician and doctor (Rhodey wouldn’t have been surprised if Tony had ended up with a lollipop and a sticker with the way everyone was cooing over him). Even - maybe even especially - when he was hurting, Tony knew how to work his audience. He lied blithely about the bad fall he’d taken playing a pick-up game of football on the quad, how he knew he should be more careful, but the older boys are just _so_ aggressive, and why yes he _would_ like a little something for the pain, thank you.

It made Rhodey uneasy, the way Tony could so easily pull that mask down and act the happy-go-lucky rich kid without a care in the world. It wasn’t the plain fact of the deception, exactly - even though he didn’t agree with it he could understand Tony’s guardedness with the truth - but the way Tony seemed to _need_ it, the way he wrapped the whole facade around himself like a protective suit of armor. Rhodey supposed he should be flattered, in a way, that Tony clearly trusted him enough to not bother with the performance around him anymore, but mostly he just felt sad that Tony felt like he needed to put up that front for _anyone_.

There was one piece of good news though - Tony’s wrist wasn’t broken, only badly sprained. Worse for having been left uncared for - in his effort to hide the injury Tony hadn’t even done the bare minimum of putting ice on it - but soon enough they were on their way again, Tony with his arm wrapped up neatly in a brace and sling to keep his wrist elevated. And completely whacked out on painkillers.

Rhodey wasn’t sure whether they’d given Tony too high a dose or if it was the compounding effect of too little sleep and food mixed with too much stress or if he was somehow subconsciously seizing the excuse to let a little vulnerability show - not pretending, exactly; more like giving in - but whatever the reason, by the time Tony got in the car for the drive back to campus his speech was coming out slurry and his usually sharp eyes had gone slightly unfocused. He spent most of the ride alternating between dozing off and muttering vaguely incoherently under his breath, only perking up when the car rolled to a stop in the parking lot outside their dorm and Rhodey got out.

Once he got around to the passenger side of the car, Tony rolled down the window and stuck his head out. “Einstein was wrong,” he declared, as if the two of them had been having a discussion on the subject this whole time.

“Oh?”

Tony nodded solemnly. “About relatives.”

“Relativity?”

“Yes, exactly!” Tony shouted, positively elated that he and Rhodey were so clearly on the same wavelength.

“That’s fascinating, Tones, it really is, but can we continue the physics revolution _inside_ , please? It’s getting dark.” When there was no discernible response from inside the car, Rhodey pulled the door open himself and Tony spilled out, toppling over onto the pavement before Rhodey had a chance to even try and catch him. Luckily he didn’t land on his wrist and seemed overall unharmed, just mildly puzzled.

“Hmm…” Tony noted with a faint air of disapproval after a few moments’ survey of his new surroundings, “...gravity.”

“Yeah, gravity’s a bitch,” Rhodey agreed. “So...you gonna get up?”

“I can prove it, you know,” Tony insisted. Now that the matter of certain universal forces acting upon him was resolved he went right back to his earlier train of thought (and in the process completely ignored Rhodey’s much more practical line of questioning).

"I'm sure you can," Rhodey shook his head in exasperated fondness and hoisted Tony up into his arms with a grunt. It was woefully apparent that there was no way the younger boy would be making it back to their room under his own steam. “Oof. You’re lucky you’re so skinny, or your ass would be spending the night in the car.”

Tony tilted his head into Rhodey's shoulder, making himself comfortable and muffling his voice as he mumbled in response, "No - lucky...strong army boy...here to save me. ...Jus' like Cap'n 'merica…"

" _Air Force_ , not Army." Rhodey corrected automatically; Tony had a habit of referring to him by every branch of the military except the right one, to rile him up (it always worked). He tried not to seem too flustered by the rest of Tony's words. Not that there was any real chance of him noticing in his current state. "And I've only just started with ROTC training so really _neither_ …" he paused. "Wait, why am I arguing with you when you're stoned? Sure, Tones, just like Captain America."

Tony giggled. "My v'ry own superhero."

Rhodey smiled at that. With some difficulty he managed to maneuver the two of them into their dorm room (getting through multiple doors while carrying a teenager, even a scrawny one, is not the easiest thing in the world). He deposited Tony on his bed, where he sprawled out, all loose-limbed but for his right hand, which remained firmly gripped onto Rhodey’s shirt. Rhodey decided not to resist and allowed himself to be pulled down onto the bed too; Tony snuggled up against him, rested his bandaged arm on Rhodey’s chest, and fell asleep almost instantly.

Rhodey watched him for a few minutes before picking up his textbook for another futile attempt at studying. He couldn’t help thinking back to Tony's drugged up rambling outside. He knew Tony had been talking nonsense and that he’d probably be back to being his usual cocky pain-in-the-ass self as soon as the meds wore off, but he had to admit it _did_ sound nice, being someone’s - no, being _Tony’s_ \- hero.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I've had certain pieces of this written for so long, it's nice to finally be able to share them :)
> 
> And a special thank you to rebelmeg for reading this over and helping me figure out the ending ❤


End file.
